Mozilla recently announced that from October, Firefox will start blocking 3rd Party Web Trackers by Default

We’ve covered the issue of 3rd party plugins and scripts numerous times before on this site - and particularly the surreptitious activities of many a site script in sticking invisible trackers on you which track your movements across wholly unrelated sites, and even persist to track after you’ve terminated a particular service.

You may notice that if you have your cookie preferences settings screen active and have only one tab open on your browser - that it’s a little like whack-a-mole in trying to shut down cookie trackers as they re-start-up as soon as you try to shut them down - and usually they have nothing to do with the actual one tab you have active!

The number, scale and scope of these trackers is so great nowadays that not only are these causing danger for web-users, but also significantly degrading the overall Internet experience by overly slowing down sites / page load times. You can see how much quicker 3rd party cookie-blocked sites load - meaning you have to keep your Ghostery browser plugin fully applied and up-to-date.

Mozilla has decided that even those available tools are not sufficient, and with Firefox version 63 slated to arrive sometime in October - it will have default built-in screening algorithms which scan for and block slow-loading trackers by default - which will be a real threat to sites using 3rd party advertising solutions in particular, as they are always susceptible to this sort of behaviour.

In other recent blog posts - about Facebook, Fortnum & Mason and British Airways, we have highlighted the danger of using 3rd party plugins and scripts on your websites. The number of cookies loaded up by some sites (50+) is getting way out of hand. And the end result is a much poorer overall experience for the typical browsing customer.

It is thus wholly understandable that Browser-makers would be bringing in their own methods to tackle this epidemic. There are several things that are sort of out of control on the Internet at the moment - and there is way to much surreptitious and still unsolicited tracking and data skimming going on. Too many companies are barely paying lip-service to GDPR and wrongly abusing ’Legitimate Interest’ claims to contravene GDPR legislation - and ’Explicit Consent’. There are so many out there egregiously and openly flouting the rules, that the ICO really needs to start doing some proper enforcement soon or GDPR will become a mockery of what it’s supposed to be.

Even as GDPR enforcement remains somewhat absent at the moment, it is heartening to see that browser companies though are taking up the challenge of better protecting consumers from unscrupulous and ethically turpitudinous operators. We all need the Internet to settle down a touch once more as with all the recent updates in technology and processing speeds it should all be a lot quicker and smoother than it currently is.

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What are Cookies?

Cookies are tiny text files that are placed on your computer, mobile phone, or other device, and help provide you with the best experience we can. They are used by most websites to help personalise your web experience. Some features will not function if you do not allow cookies.

Our cookies help us:

Make our website work as you’d expectSave you having to login every time you visit the siteRemember your settings during and between visitsImprove the speed/security of the siteAllow you to share pages with social networks like TwitterContinuously improve our website for youGranting us permission to use cookies

If the settings on your software that you are using to view this website (your browser) are adjusted to accept cookies we take this, and your continued use of our website, to mean that you are fine with this. Should you wish to remove or not use cookies from our site you can remove them, however doing so will likely mean that our site will not work as you would expect.

It is only once you sign up and provide consent that the system will look to personalise the experience for you with best matching content and other recommendations.

Which cookies do we use and why?

Across the site we use the minimum number of cookies, with no third party analytics tracking, e.g. Google Analytics. There are however some key social, audio and video embeds which are used on the site and these in turn use cookies, we recommend that you use privacy and ad blocking plugins to minimise the number of third party cookies, none of which are required for affino.com.

1. Strictly necessary

Strictly necessary cookies are essential in helping you to move around our websites and use their features, such as accessing secure areas of the website and shopping. These cookies don’t gather any information about you that could be used for marketing or remembering where you’ve been on the internet.

We use these Strictly Necessary cookies to:

Remember things like information you’ve entered on order forms when you navigate to different pages in a single web browser sessionRemember the goods and services you ordered when you get to the checkout pageIdentifying you as being signed in and keeping you logged in throughout your visit so that you don’t need to sign in each and every time you visit.Using our site indicates that you accept the use of ’Strictly Necessary’ cookies.

Accepting these cookies is a condition of using the website, so if you prevent them we cannot guarantee how our site will perform for you.

Here is a list of the cookies we have defined as ’Strictly Necessary’

Host: affino.comCookie names: JSESSIONIDPurpose: To keep track of user sessions on the site and identify your user session on the server level.

These cookies allow websites and applications to remember choices you make (such as your user name, language or the region you are in) and provide enhanced, more personal features. They do not gather any information about you that could be used for selling advertising or remembering where you’ve been on the internet, but do help with serving advertising.

Some examples of how we do this include:

Remembering your preferences and settings.Show you when you’re logged in to the websiteSupporting social media components, like Facebook or Twitter (where a website uses a plugin from these third party platforms, for example).Remembering if you’ve been to the site before so that messages intended for first-time users are not displayed to you.Remembering your search settingsMaking our shopping basket and checkout workRemembering if you have accepted our terms and conditionsUsing our site indicates that you accept the use of ’Functional’ cookies.

Accepting these cookies is a condition of using the website, so if you prevent them we cannot guarantee how our site will perform for you.

Here is a list of the cookies we have defined as ’Functional’:

None

3. Performance (analytical)

’Performance’ cookies collect information about how you use our website e.g. which pages you visit, and if you experience any errors. These cookies don’t collect any information that could identify you - all the information collected is anonymous and is only used to help us improve how our website works.

Some examples of how we do this include:

Provide statistics on how our website is usedSee how effective our adverts are (we don’t use this information to target adverts to you when you visit other websites)Provide feedback to partners that one of our visitors also visited their website. This can include details of any products bought. This lets our partners improve their website, but we don’t allow our partners to reuse this information for further advertisingHelp us improve the website by measuring any errors that occurUsing our site indicates that you accept the use of ’Performance’ cookies.

Accepting these cookies is a condition of using the website, so if you prevent them we cannot guarantee how our site will perform for you.

Here is a list of the cookies we have defined as ’Performance’:

None

4. Target or Advertising (3rd party)

’Targeting’ cookies are linked to services provided by third parties, such as ’Like’ buttons and ’Share’ buttons. The third party provides these services in return for recognising that you have visited our website.

An example of this includes:

Link to social networks like Facebook, who may subsequently use information about your visit to target advertising to you on other websitesWe use third party services provided by third parties like YouTube or Vimeo who may subsequently use information about your visit to target advertising to you on other websitesYou can control whether or not these cookies are used, but preventing them may stop us from offering you some services. All of these cookies are managed by third parties, and you may alternatively use the third parties’ own tools to prevent these cookies.

Here is a list of the cookies we have defined as ’Targeting’.

None

Third Party Cookies

Some third party content may be embedded in pages on Affino.com and these may have the ability to track and personalise your experience for the embedded content. Examples of third party cookies are:

Host: soundcloud.comCookie name: __utma, __utmb, __utmc, __utmzPurpose: Soundcloud can be used to share music and audio files. They use google analytics to capture visitor information

Host: youtube.comCookie name: PREF, use_hitbox, PRVISITOR_INFO1_LIVEEFPurpose: When you view a web page on your site with an embedded YouTube video, YouTube creates these cookies

Host: twitter.comCookie name: personalization_idPurpose: When you view a web page on your site with an embedded Twitter card, Twitter creates this cookie.

How you can control cookies

1. Browser controls

Most modern browsers offer you ways to control or block cookies. These browser controls will usually be found in the “options’ or “preferences” menu. For more help, you may take a look at the “Help” settings or review these website for more details - http://www.aboutcookies.org/Default.aspx?page=1

2. Ad cookies and targeting

You can find more information or turn off targeting by member companies at YourOnlineChoices UK http://www.youronlinechoices.com/uk.

About this policy

If our use of cookies changes, we will post the changes to this policy. Please check frequently as online data collection practices and our use of them continue to evolve. To contact us about this policy, you may email support@affino.com

This version of the privacy policy is effective as of Aug 1 2018

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly necessary cookies are essential in helping you to move around our websites and use their features, such as accessing secure areas of the website and shopping. These cookies don't gather any information about you that could be used for marketing or remembering where you've been on the internet.

We use these Strictly Necessary cookies to:

Remember things like information you've entered on order forms when you navigate to different pages in a single web browser session

Remember the goods and services you ordered when you get to the checkout page

Identifying you as being signed in and keeping you logged in throughout your visit so that you don't need to sign in each and every time you visit.

Using our site indicates that you accept the use of 'Strictly Necessary' cookies.

Accepting these cookies is a condition of using the website, so if you prevent them we cannot guarantee how our site will perform for you.

'Performance' cookies collect information about how you use our website e.g. which pages you visit, and if you experience any errors. These cookies don't collect any information that could identify you - all the information collected is anonymous and is only used to help us improve how our website works.

Some examples of how we do this include:

Provide statistics on how our website is used

See how effective our adverts are (we don't use this information to target adverts to you when you visit other websites)

Provide feedback to partners that one of our visitors also visited their website. This can include details of any products bought. This lets our partners improve their website, but we don't allow our partners to reuse this information for further advertising